"Desperate Housewives," which Marc Cherry wrote totally on his own and shopped around, is the most prominent recent example.

Not surprising for television, some of the ideas have a whiff of familiarity. Cedric the Entertainer is developing a comedy for ABC about a suddenly rich family moving to Beverly Hills ("then one day he was shooting for some food, and up through the ground come a bubbling crude").

The strike likely accelerated changes in how the networks present their schedules to advertisers.

Fox is staying traditional, but the glitzy upfront presentations of the past are gone. It was only a few years ago that CBS brought the Who to Carnegie Hall to perform privately for advertisers. This year ABC and CBS both plan more sober, abbreviated sales pitches. NBC announced its schedule a month ago, and will invite guests to an NBC Universal pep rally.

The increasing tendency of networks to order early a new season of episodes of some favorite shows means much of the mystery has already been removed from such announcements. There are some shows on the bubble, however, like "Boston Legal," "'Til Death" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

When the announcements are over, it will be up to advertisers to speak with their wallets, to say what programs they find promising and want to place commercials on.

That will be the most important measure to date of the strike's impact.

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